The White Queen
by campbti
Summary: Reading between the lines of Oliver's salvation.


She rubbed her finger gently across the antique ivory she held in her hand. Her skin caressing the smooth texture at the base up across the intricate carving done by a hand lost generations ago. It was the first symbol. The first in a long line that included things larger and vastly more expensive, yet it along with one other was the most precious.

He had laid it in front of her on an otherwise normal morning. She hadn't felt his presence but somehow she had known this was inevitable. The fear that rose up in her at the sight was causing a bitter taste in her mouth. She had hoped she was ready but she was wrong. Now she could only hope that she was not wrong about the more important things. Forcing herself to look up into his face was difficult and yet offered no answers. His face was blank, maybe this was going to be her worst fears played out on a street corner in front of an average coffee shop. Was it too late to rewind the day and drink her coffee at home, or worse was it too late to fix all that she had done.

He began to speak as he moved to occupy the seat opposite her. She struggled to listen to the words, trying desperately to hear something in his voice or find a clue in his mannerisms. He recounted the things she had known, the deeds she had set in motion. Then she waited to see if she would be given a change for some last words, a chance to defend the undefendable yet the unavoidable. He paused and she felt the first breath of hope dance across her skin.

She spoke her worst fears, "a death wish". The final days of his spiral that had led her to this juncture, to make decisions she couldn't take back. Her breath held as the roaring in her ears drown out everything but him. She waited for his answer, the one that would save or devour her. She had learned some things these past few days and weeks. Things she never would have thought possible, that had come to be the most important truths in her life. Understanding had dawned when she waited on the other end of a com link a week or so before. A knowledge so deep that it lay intertwined with her very being. She could not live without Oliver Queen.

It was not something so simply as need or want, as like or love. It was just truth, a knowledge she could not unlearn once it had been revealed. For days she had struggled with her actions, then it seemed as if there was no choice. Something had to be done and she would have to be the one to do it. If in the end it was an act that could not be forgiven she could live with that but the alternative was unthinkable.

Then his mouth crooked up just the slightest and his head bobbed and she took the first real breath she had taken in days. They traded gentle barbs, "a three ton truck", "a tricycle". But the sentiment was there; she was forgiven. He understood. She always knew that someday he would, but she was afraid that he might see it as more betrayal than a good deed.

She told him about the blanks and her trust issues slipped out. She wanted to reach out and take them back but he seemed to shrug it off. He asked about Clark, she almost laughed out loud. Clark was never in for the heavy gray areas where decisions had to be made that might be dangerous and whose success wasn't guaranteed. Clark lived in a world of black and white hats. Oliver and Chloe lived in the real world. He knew what she meant immediately. She almost smiled, they were so alike. They saw the world for what it was. His next words brought the smile to her face she was afraid might never come back.

"know me like you do", those words also brought up a pang in the center of her chest, one she had long been trying to keep at bay. Her 'understanding' as she liked to call it was one thing, but this was something altogether different. She knew what it was, but adamantly refused to allow the word to register in her brain. But unbidden it came, in that moment with that look on his face, the sincerity in his eyes. She had known she wouldn't be able to ignore it for much longer, but this wasn't the conversation she wanted to think about it either.

Then the words she had thought she might not hear, "thank you." Her smile widened just a bit and her eyes were starting to tear. The realization that the hardest thing you have ever had to do might just turn out okay was beginning to take hold. The world might begin to revolve as intended again, and Chloe Sullivan might be able to breath without the anvil of grief and regret sitting on her chest.

She saw him move but didn't anticipate the action. He touched her hand and the pang in her chest grew, it opened a place inside her heart that beat until this day. Love. The word she had tried to ignore the thoughts that she had tried to deny. She had looked into that face a thousand times and knew she had seen so many things. But she knew from this moment on she wouldn't be able to think of anything else besides she loved this man.

Her eyes refocusing on the figurine in her hand she caressed the face once more remembering so many other perfect moments. The morning sun made the ivory almost glow, though it could have been the glimmer off of her most treasured symbol. The emerald and diamond wedding set glistened in the light as beautifully as it had the first time he had placed it on her finger. She had never doubted that all her decisions were worth it, but in hindsight they had been some of the best she had ever made.

"You know you never asked me why I gave you that."

Chloe turned quickly, brought out of her musing by the gentle voice of the man she adored most in the world. He smiled from his casual stance leaning up against the doorframe of their bedroom. She couldn't help but return the smile. "Well I guess I always assumed just what you said, 'nicely played' or some such 'nice move' sentiment." Her smile widened a bit as she watched him cross the room and then pull her from her seat only to sit down himself and pull her back into his lap.

"Well, apparently my forethought was lost on you, though I assumed you understood at least on some level as you kept it all these years." He took the chess piece from her hand and ran his fingers along the length of it the same as she had been doing. He looked up into her face for some recognition of his meaning.

"I'm sorry clearly you spent way more time on some of this stuff than I." She laughed just a bit as she ran her hands through the hair on the side of his head. She wondered it there would ever come a time that she would get tired of touching him, oh just watching him breath. Not likely were the words that came crashing to the front of her mind as he reached up and took her hand and brought it to his lips.

"Well I thought the symbolism was so obvious it needed no explanation." His eyebrow went up just a bit as if giving her one last chance to see the truth on her own. When she simply waited on him to speak, he said the last thing she was expecting. "A queen from a Queen to a future Queen." He smiled as he watch the confusion and then realization dawn on her beautiful face.

"You knew, then, that you were, I mean that we might?" Her words were falling without much cohesion and he placed his finger over her lips to stop the flow.

"I knew what I couldn't live without. I knew that when it was life or death that you were the call I made. I knew that when I had no where else to go that I could come to you. I knew that when no one else could save me, not Clark, not Lois, only you. You saved me Chloe. I said it then, 'the myth and the man'. I knew I had lost sight of what was good in my life. I knew that when everyone else was looking for a new hero that you were the one that kept the old one alive." The truth in his words was written all over his face.

Chloe leaned in and kissed him softly, words were failing her at the moment. Except for the ones that came so easily and had for years, "I love you Mr. Queen."

He smiled, his hand tangled in her hair, "As I love you Mrs. Queen." She giggled as he kissed her again, only to be interrupted by gagging noises just behind them.

"Seriously can you guys not do that right now?" The voice of Olivia Queen rang out across the room ripe with her disgust.

"Yeah Mom, there are important things to do, I have to get to soccer practice." Jonathan Queen was similarly annoyed by the vision of his parents sharing a chair, even if it was in their own bedroom.

Chloe laughed. "Fine I'm coming. Olivia, your father is going to drop you at Aunt Lois'. Get your stuff and we'll meet you in the garage." Both children rolled their eyes and ran from the room in fear there were more displays of affection forthcoming. Chloe smiled and turned back to her husband, "so any regrets?"

He smiled, "Not even one. I won the game remember."

Pushing herself off him she smiled back, kissing him on the nose. "Good." Then as she walked toward the door she glanced back over her shoulder at him raising her eyebrow, "and who said the game was over?"

He smiled shaking his head as he got up and followed her out of the room, the words running through his head as they did nearly every day, 'god I love that woman'.

The End.


End file.
